Even in the height of noon opprest, the sun
Sheds weak, and blunt, his wide refracted ray;
Whence glaring oft, with many a broaden❜d orb,
He frights the nations. Indistinct on earth,
Seen thro' the turbid air, beyond the life
Objects appear; and wilder'd, o'er the waste
The shepherd stalks gigantic.

THOMSON.

This month is the height of the hunting season. The temperature of the weather is peculiarly favourable to the sport; and as the products of the earth are all got in, little damage is done by the horsemen in pursuing their chace across the fields-

All now is free as air, and the gay pack

In the rough bristly stubbles range umblam'd;
No widow's tears o'erflow, no secret curse
Swells in the farmer's breast, which his pale lips
Trembling conceal, by his fierce landlord aw'd:
But courteous now he levels every fence,
Joins in the common cry, and halloos loud,
Charm'd with the rattling thunder of the field.
SOMERVILLE.

It is usually in October that the bee-hives are despoiled of their honey. As long as flowers are plentiful, the bees continue adding to their store; but when these fail, they are obliged to begin feeding on the honey they have already made. From this time, therefore, the hive grows less and less valuable. Its condition is judged of by its weight. The common method of getting at the honey, is by destroying the bees with the fumes of burning brimstone. The humane THOMSON exclaims against this practise

Ah see where robb'd, and murder'd, in that pit
Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatch'd,
Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night,
And fix'd o'er sulphur; while, not dreaming ill,
The happy people, in their waxen cells,
Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes
Of temperance, for Winter poor; rejoice

To mark, full flowing round, their copious stores.
Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends;
And, us'd to milder scents, the tender race,
By thousands, tumble from their honeyed domes,
Convolv'd, and agonizing in the dust.

And was it then for this you roam'd the Spring,
Intent from flower to flower! for this
you toil'd
Ceaseless the burning Summer-heats away?
For this in Autumn search'd the blooming waste,
Nor lost one sunny gleam; for this sad fate?

This cruel necessity may be prevented by using hives or boxes properly contrived; or by employing fumes which will stupify but not kill them. In this case, however, enough of the honey must be left for their subsistence during the Winter.

In most of the wine countries of Europe, the vintage takes place in October. The grape is one of the latest fruits in ripening. When gathered, they are immediately pressed, and the juice is fermented, like that of apples in making Cyder. A great variety of wines are produced from the different kinds of grapes, and the diversity of climates in which they grow. In England, this fruit does not ripen constantly enough, to be worth cultivation for the purpose of making wine.

This month is particularly chosen, on account of its mild temperature, for the brewing of malt liquor designed for long keeping, which is, therefore, commonly called old October.

The farmer continues to sow his Winter corn during this month; and wheat is frequently not all sown till the end of it. When the weather is too wet for this business, he plows up the stubble fields for Winter fallows. Acorns are sown for young plantations at this time; and forest and fruit trees are planted.

At the very close of the month, a few flowers still cheer the eye; and there is a second blow of some kinds, particularly of the woodbine. But the scent of all these late flowers is comparatively faint.

NOVEMBER.

Now the leaf

Incessant rustles from the mournful grove;
Oft startling such as, studious, walk below;
And slowly circles thro' the waving air.

As the preceding month was marked by a change, so this is distinguished by the fall of the leaf. This last is so striking a circumstance, that the whole declining season of the year is often, in common language, named the Fall. There is something extremely melancholy in this gradual process, by which the trees are stripped of all their beauty, and left so many monuments of decay and desolation. The first of poets has deduced from this quick succession of springing and falling leaves, an apt comparison for the fugitive races of men

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground.
Another race the following Spring supplies,

They fall successive, and successive rise;

So generations in their course decay,

So flourish these, when those are past away.

POPE'S HOMER.

This loss of verdure, together with the shortened days, the diminishing warmth, and frequent rains, justify the title of the gloomy month of November :

and other animals seem to sympathize with man in feeling it as such—

In pensive guise,

Oft let me wander o'er the russet mead,

And thro' the saddened grove, where scarce is heard
One dying strain, to cheer the woodman's toil.
Haply some widowed songster pours his plaint,
Far, in faint warblings, thro' the tawny copse.
While congregated thrushes, linnets, larks,
And each wild throat, whose artless strains so late
Swell'd all the music of the swarming shades,
Robb'd of their tuneful souls, now shivering sit
On the dead tree, a dull despondent flock;
With not a brightness waving o'er their plumes,
And nought save chattering discord in their note.
THOMSON.

Intervals of clear and pleasant weather, however, frequently occur; and, in general, the Autumnal months are, in our island, softer and less variable than the correspondent ones in Spring. It long continues

The pale descending year, yet pleasing still.

In fair weather, the mornings are somewhat frosty; but the hoar frost or thin ice soon vanishes after sun-rise

The lengthened night elaps'd, the morning shines
Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright,

Unfolding fair the last Autumnal day.

And now the mounting sun dispels the fog;
The rigid hoar frost melts before his beam;
And hung on every spray, on every blade
Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round.
THOMSON.